We must vote ‘yes’ on 1 for compassionate care

Thursday

Oct 25, 2018 at 3:01 AM

It is important for the public to know the truth about Question 1.

When I was 16, I experienced a life-threatening and traumatizing event following a 13-hour surgery. The nursing staff was not able to monitor me closely enough. For hours I suffered in extreme pain, not knowing if I would live or die.

Instead of protecting patients, the “No on Question 1” campaign is disseminating false information. They claim that hospitals will have to compete with other organizations to hire nurses to meet the new ratios.

This is completely false!

First, Massachusetts has an overwhelming surplus of nurses. As it stands, there are more than enough nurses in the state to meet the new ratios.

Second, many hospitals refuse to hire the thousands of highly talented new graduate nurses. Every few months hundreds of new graduate nurses from Massachusetts are forced to consider leaving the state because Massachusetts hospitals don’t want to train new nurses.

The “No on Question 1” campaign is trying to protect a system that causes patients to needlessly suffer, and die prematurely. Let’s stop making silly excuses and start having true compassion for patients!

Aaron Maloy

Mashpee

The writer is a family nurse practitioner.

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